Death in Ice Valley is said to be the BBC’s “answer” to the podcast Serial. That, in itself, feels slightly dispiriting. Almost four years after a not-for-profit production company in Chicago produced the most popular podcast series of all time – a word-of-mouth sensation that helped spawn a mass market for the emerging medium – our national broadcaster is only now lumbering to its feet to offer some serious competition.

To make the comparison especially direct, Death in Ice Valley (released weekly on BBC iPlayer and Apple Podcasts) is, like Serial, a cold-case investigation about a murdered woman – but this time with added Scandi-noir.